The sadness of Barolo

The sadness is a reaction to the standstill that has overtaken the Langhe with the result that - with very few exceptions – its wines appear to be retreating by 30 years. 

There were many unfortunate novelties at this year’s Nebbiolo Prima exhibition: the days were cut to three, there were no retrospectives of previous vintages and producers were allowed to present only one wine per category. Despite this each morning 100 Nebbiolo wines were offered for tasting from Barolo to Barbaresco to Roero. Unfortunately, moving the event up by a month did not help those wines that need to age in the bottle.

On a more positive note, there was good news concerning 2013 Barolo , which was in glorious form with many interesting and top-quality wines. The Barbaresco 2014  was often pleasing and sometimes even captivating with a balanced drinkability that was better than expected . However, the most important and at times embarrassing considerations came from visiting the wineries. The first was the proliferation of the term geographic mention  on labels. In theory, this was supposed to be the Italian equivalent the French term cru except in this case there is no official vertical rating . Thus many of these ‘mentions’ have little meaning, and at times are even deceptive, and in the long run will only create confusion in the market. It is clear that this diversification was above all pushed through by the estates’ marketing and sales people more than enologists and agronomists, who are more cautious when it comes to individual wines. Absurd as it may seem, not even the owners of some estate could recognize the characteristics that were the justification of the mention. Embarrassing.

The second consideration regards the standstill in the mentality of producers in the Langhe . For 30 years this area had been home to advanced research with many fresh ideas on cultivating vineyards, maceration and fermentation which gave notoriety to small producers who are now famous the world over. The general thrust forward has since stalled and many now seem to be ashamed or even embarrassed it ever took place. A full-scale restoration is clearly in progress based on three mantras  which appear to have been imposed from above: only indigenous yeasts, even if nobody know which ones; aging only in large barrels with no use of barriques or tonneau barrels; and the latest novelty: submerged cap fermentation with a race on as to who can do it the longest.

The question that comes first to mind is: why? How does all this benefit or improve the wine? In many cases the devastating answer is: “It’s the way my grandfather did it, it’s tradition”. How sad, there is no programmatic or scientific rational behind this trend. The wines, even when there are of good quality, thus all tend to resemble each other with the same worn out color, which is not that important, and the aromas evolve towards notes more in line with bottle aging, dried flowers and notes of pomegranate and watermelon as opposed to yellow prune and violet, turgid notes of rose and pansy that so distinguished the various historic crus, sorry about the geographic mention.

I don’t know how all this came about and I hope it is just momentary, a backlash from the dark forces who haut the Langhe claiming to be gurus or the keepers of the sole truth. Fortunately, not everyone has buckled to this trend and continue the research begun 30 years ago and seek to spread the word. The Resistance exists and we thank them for the great wines they are making.

On another subject, I would like to point out how the food in the Langhe is always excellent with a quality/price/portion ratio all to the advantage of the customer. They have some very interesting wine cellars with lots of vintages while the cuisine – from the traditional osteria to the star-rated – is based solidly on tradition with only limited yet spot-on excursions into fusion. All things considered, no disappointments. Allow me to suggest La Locanda del Pilone, just above Alba, in Madonna di Como 34 (tel.0173 366616). It is run by the young chef Federico Gallo who is assisted on the floor by maître d’ Sofia Brunelli and sommelier Marco Loddo.

In conclusion, a few ‘technical’ observations on the event. The staging it at the same time as the Grandi Langhe event allowed participants, if they wanted, to spend the afternoon meeting producers at the classic tasting tables set up in various towns where the focus was different and more territorial. It was a great idea but how can anyone taste another 60 Nebbiolo, Dolcetto or Barbera wines in the afternoon and maintain the same sobriety and judgement after tasting 100 wines in the morning under totally different conditions? I thus opted for making appointments to visit individual estates, something other colleagues did as well, for more targeted tastings.

The morning tastings were perfectly organized with a swift and efficient service. The wines were served at ideal temperatures and the ambiance was comfortable and full of light. Let’s hope that in the future it will be possible to taste more wines from the same estate by expanding the hours of each sitting in order to get a full picture of each estate. Unfortunately, the Roero tasting was practically useless because some producers insisted on offering vintages that had already been reviewed in our as well as other guides.